Edna+Frederickson

The March 7, 1913 death of 16-year-old Edna Ruth Frederickson was tangled up in a tale of murder and intrigue.

Edna was employed at a Chicago candy shop for $2 per week, and turned her wages over to her mother. Wanting to have some money for herself, and unhappy at home, Edna turned to a co-worker at the candy company, a married woman who went by the names of Lillie Dearborn and Kitty Young.

Dearborn took Edna to the Dreamland Dance Hall, "and Edna soon began to earn more money." Evidently through a connection she made at Dreamland, Edna became pregnant.

George Ringler Jr., who was responsible for Edna's pregnancy, was first sought aboard a steamer where he worked as a machinist, but for some unexplained reason he was not aboard when the ship sailed.

A German newspaper clipping about Edna's death was found in the pocket of George Dietz, a murder victim. Also in Dietz's pocket was the business card of Dr. Eva Conheim.

Eventually, Dietz's widow, Augusta, was implicated in his murder, and beyond the clipping and business card, no connection was ever made between Dietz and Edna.

Sources
 * "Aldine Avenue Murder Mystery Deepens; Dietz's Relations With Girls Revealed," //The (Chicago) Day Book//, Apr. 15, 1913
 * "The Dietz Case," //The Day Book//, Apr. 19, 1913